12 American Voices An Authentic Listening and Integrated Skills Textbook Instructors Manual by MC Hauck

12 American Voices
Instructor’s Manual
12 American Voices
Maurice Cogan Hauck
Instructor’s Manual
ya l e u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s n e w h av e n a n d l o n d o n
Copyright © 2002 by Yale University.
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Introduction 1
Notes on Chapters 11
1 Hunan Chef 13
2 The Nixie Clerk 21
3 Airplane Ashes 27
4 Chained Girl 33
5 Senior DJs 39
6 Advance Obituaries 43
7 Diaryman 49
8 Passover Wine 55
9 The Joe Franklin Show 59
10 Kipperman’s Pawnshop and Wedding Chapel 63
11 Woolworth’s Lunch Counter 69
12 Cynical Santa 75
Introduction
This manual contains suggestions on how to most effectively use the broad-
casts and lessons in Twelve American Voices. We have taught these stories to
many students and in a wide variety of classrooms. In each case there were
differences large and small in how the lessons were taught depending on the
goals and orientations of the course and—even more—on the interests and
responses of the students. For that reason we would like to begin by empha-
sizing that our experience and advice are only that. You should accept only
that which seems applicable to your own teaching situation.
We have organized this manual in the following way: Each chapter begins
with a brief Introduction to the Broadcast. These notes include a synopsis of
the story and comments on its content and major themes.
This is followed by Culture and Language Notes, which is intended to give
background on some points, mostly vocabulary and idiomatic phrases, that
might not be readily clear to teachers who have not lived extensively in the
United States. This feature may also be helpful for those native-speaking
instructors who find themselves teaching a lesson on a corner of American
culture with which they are not familiar.
Once you have read these notes and decided to teach the story, we suggest
that you listen to the broadcast before taking it into the classroom. A great
deal of the meaning of the broadcasts (as well as their charm and richness)
can come only by actually hearing them. Also, noting your own reactions to a
broadcast while listening on your own is the best preparation to lead the class
through it.
The next section, Notes on the Exercises, consists of comments on each
activity in the lesson. The notes for Chapter 1 are more extensive than are
those for the other chapters, as this is an introduction to the book in a num-
ber of ways. In fact, we recommend reading through “Hunan Chef,” both
the chapter and the notes, no matter what chapter you plan to use first.
Using authentic materials such as these radio stories has a number of
advantages for students and teachers alike. They are culturally as well as lin-
guistically rich, and, because they were designed to appeal to native speakers,
they are well crafted enough to bear up to repeated listening, which is impor-
tant in a language classroom. However, working with authentic materials
may require some adjustment. For that reason we would like to point out
some of the ways that authentic materials can be different and explain a few
of the principles that underlie the approach taken in this book.
The first difference is that the language in authentic materials is not as
neatly controlled as in texts written for the classroom. The level of vocabu-
lary and structures may range widely within a single broadcast. For this rea-
son it is important to rethink what it means to “understand” a text. This book
defines comprehension as the ability to appreciate and respond intelligently
to the broadcast, but not necessarily to have mastery of every word it con-
tains. After all, any two native speakers who hear a story such as these will
likely have different memories and interpretations of it. The goal of Twelve
American Voices is to put students in a position to construct their own meaning
from the text, not to come to adopt wholeheartedly our, or your, interpreta-
tion of what it means.
We feel that this book can be used successfully with a wide range of classes,
from lower intermediate to advanced. This reflects another principle of
working with authentic materials: that it is far more important to grade the
task—what is asked of the students, what support they are given, and how
much time is allowed—than to grade the level of the text itself. Thus a lower-
level class might need to do careful preparation in the Orientation and
Vocabulary sections and perhaps repeat the Listening for Comprehension
section (techniques for managing listening with lower levels are given below).
A more advanced class might zip through these stages and be able to devote
more of a given class period to Listening for Analysis and the After Listening
activities. You, as the instructor, will act as a bridge between the broadcasts
2 Introduction
and your students, using your judgment and their responses to determine
how best to proceed.
Finally, we should note that these broadcasts are unedited from the form in
which they appeared on National Public Radio, and some of the themes and
language that they contain are of an adult nature. For example, “Airplane
Ashes” discusses different means of observing death, and “Chained Girl”
deals with drug addiction and the limits of parental discipline; the subject of
“Cynical Santa” expresses his irascibility with such phrases as “Aw, to hell
with it” and “I gotta go pee.” We consider all of the stories and the language
used in them to be ultimately in good taste and to contribute to our students’
understanding of American culture. In fact, we consider these lessons to be
something of an antidote to the watered-down language of so many ESL
textbooks, which do not adequately respect students’ maturity and intelli-
gence. We treat students as thinking adults capable of dealing with difficult
issues or learning about impolite language. However, tastes and standards do
vary. It is best to listen to the broadcasts yourself and then judge whether
they are appropriate for your students.
With this book Twelve American Voices is leaving our hands and going out to
a range of teachers, students, and classrooms. The meaning of these broad-
casts and lessons will be different for each person who interacts with them.
We hope that this manual serves you well as a starting point in looking for
ideas and directions for your teaching of Twelve American Voices and that the
lessons that you and your students derive from David Isay’s stories are rich
and satisfying. Even more so, we hope that you find in these stories meanings
and insights that we had not anticipated.
Structure of the Chapters
b e f o r e l i st e n i n g
Learners hear better when they have a context for the input they are receiv-
ing, so in this stage we introduce students to the world of the story. The two
activities are intended to spur students’ curiosity and latent knowledge about
the subject and to introduce vocabulary relevant to its themes and subject
area. This helps to make the listening that follows more realistic and
meaningful.
The emphasis here should be on raising issues in preparation for listening.
(Themes raised in the Before Listening activities are generally revisited in the
Introduction 3
After Listening activities, where they are dealt with in greater depth after stu-
dents have worked with the broadcast.) The Before Listening activities should
not take more than fifteen to twenty minutes.
In the Orientation students are asked to consider some of the themes of
the story in a way related to their own experience (e.g., in “Hunan Chef ”
they are asked to describe a restaurant they themselves have gone to
regularly).
The degree of teacher presentation needed at this point will depend on
how familiar your class is with the procedures for working in groups. On your
first occasion using this book with a given class, it may be worthwhile to
establish protocols for working in groups. Additionally, consider modeling the
type of response that is expected by giving your own response to the topic.
Once students are in working groups, it is advisable to limit their
exchanges to about five minutes. You can let students know that they will
have an opportunity to go more deeply into the subject later in the lesson. At
this point, it is enough to simply raise the issues so that students are primed
for listening to the broadcast.
Teachers should focus on what different individuals and groups have to say
and avoid correcting the accuracy of language use unless there is a serious
breakdown in communication.
The Vocabulary activity prepares students to listen by presenting words
that may be unfamiliar and that are related to the themes and ideas in the
story. Not all potentially difficult words are presented; rather, the focus is on
vocabulary central to the ideas in the story. Later in each chapter, students
are invited to ask about other words they are interested in learning in the
Listening for Analysis activity.
In doing the vocabulary activities, students should be encouraged to pool
their knowledge, to work together on each item rather than simply check
their answers with each other afterward. In many cases, use of English-
English dictionaries is encouraged. Two-language dictionaries, which pull
the student away from English and which are often inaccurate, should be
used only as a last resort.
l i st e n i n g a n d u n d e r sta n d i n g
This is the longest section of the lesson, and its goal is to lead students to a
native-like understanding of the many meanings in the broadcast. The heart
of this section consists of a three-part listening sequence leading to both
comprehension of the broadcast and an appreciation of how it achieves its
4 Introduction
effects. Opportunities are also given for focused work on points of language
structure that come up in the story.
Each broadcast is preceded by a brief Introduction, which replaces the
kind of introduction typically given by the radio host before David Isay’s
broadcast begins. You might read the introduction aloud (or ask a student to)
or simply let students read it themselves before moving on. There are no
activities associated with the introduction.
The First Listening: Predicting activity gives students a focus for their first
hearing of the story by asking them to take a personal stake in the broadcast.
Students might hesitate to make predictions out of a fear of being wrong or a
sense that they don’t have enough information to go on. Encourage them to
base their predictions on the information in the introduction, on the opening
page of the chapter (which contains the title, a photo, and a quote from the
broadcast), and on their own sense of what might be the subject of a radio
story. It can be helpful to ask, “When you’re watching TV, how do you make
a decision on what program to watch based on the small amount of informa-
tion in the TV guide?” As they get used to working with this book, and get a
sense of David Isay, their predictions will become more sophisticated.
You can let students keep track of their own predictions, have them share
their predictions in groups, or gather the predictions on the board and then
check which are most accurate, lending the activity the flavor of a competi-
tion. Some reasonable predictions will not be fulfilled, so not too much atten-
tion should be placed on whose predictions turn out to be right or wrong.
When you play the broadcast for the first time, encourage students to focus
on listening for the answer to their predictions, but also urge them to relax
and to listen for whatever else they can get out of the story. (One goal of this
exercise is for students to realize how much they can understand of the text’s
global meaning by not worrying about details.) Students should check under-
standing with each other before getting feedback from the teacher.
The more intensive tasks in Listening for Comprehension ask students to
demonstrate a fairly detailed literal understanding of the text. The questions
are presented in the same order in which their answers appear in the text and
include both short-answer and open-ended questions. Consider the differ-
ence between these types of questions when calling on students for answers:
giving easier questions to students who are not as strong can help to build
their confidence, and giving harder questions to more capable students can
provide them with a challenge.
The methodology used in Listening for Comprehension is designed to
gauge the level of support needed by the students. The first step after First
Introduction 5
Listening: Predicting has been finished is to have the class read the questions
to make sure that they understand them. If a student can answer a question
from the first listening, he or she should do so in writing (though the class
should not yet share this information). This process will prime students to lis-
ten for answers to the questions that they can not yet answer.
The broadcast then should be played through for a second time without
stopping. After the broadcast ends, allow a minute or two of silence to let stu-
dents process and reflect on the broadcast, and to work out answers they may
know but not have had time to write. Students should check their work in
groups before going over the answers as a class.
At this point students should have a solid grasp of the essential events and
ideas of the broadcast. They should be able to explain where it takes place,
who is involved, and what occurred. If the class seems to have generally good
comprehension, simply move on to the next activity. If the class seems to
need more work on comprehension, there are a number of options:
• play the broadcast again in its entirety;

• play the broadcast in sections, pausing and rewinding to give students as
many chances as needed to hear a difficult passage;
• let students listen while following along with the transcript (a process
usually saved for Listening for Analysis);
• in a small class it may even make sense to allow the students to control the
tape player themselves.
In each case, ask the students how well they have understood the story and
what would be the best way for them to improve their understanding, if nec-
essary.
Two additional activities within the Listening and Understanding stage,
Language Focus A and Language Focus B, give students a chance to look
closely at a point of language structure or usage that comes up in the broad-
cast. Students often appreciate this kind of specific language study, as it gives
them a sense of having learned something distinct and identifiable. It also
represents a change of pace at this stage in the lesson, offering a break from
the three listening activities.
Language Focus activities should not replace grammar study, but they do
offer a different view of how grammar is used in real discourse. Therefore,
these activities can be useful after students have studied a certain grammar
point in a traditional textbook, or they can provide a starting point for a more
thorough grammar lesson.
6 Introduction
Language Focus A exercises examine a particular feature of language
structure (e.g., phrasal verbs in Chapters 1 and 10; preposition combinations
in Chapter 4 and time prepositions in Chapter 11) as it occurs in the text.
Students are guided to understand the meaning and use of the particular
feature and then given a chance to practice the point in a directed manner.
Language Focus B exercises cover broader issues of language, style, and
culture than what is traditionally taught as “grammar.” Topics addressed
include nonsexist language (Chapter 2); the language of hype (Chapter 9);
and polite and impolite language (Chapter 12). In each case, these exercises
demonstrate how higher-level meanings are created through lower-level
grammatical and stylistic features. Relative to Language Focus A, students
are given more responsibility and freedom for analyzing the text and for
working out its meanings themselves.
The rest of the chapter does not depend on the Language Focus activities,
so you should feel free to change their order or even to omit them if time is
short. Alternatively, Language Focus activities can be assigned as homework.
By the time students reach Listening for Analysis they have developed a
solid general understanding of the events of the story. As they hear the
broadcast a third time they are given access to the transcript and asked to use
it in answering questions of a more interpretative nature. The goal here is
that students will gain not only an understanding but a native-like apprecia-
tion of the broadcast. At this stage students often laugh at funny points or
appreciate subtleties of the stories that until now have evaded them as they’ve
focused on literal meaning.
There is a range of possible valid answers to any of the questions posed in
Listening for Analysis. The focus should not be put on right and wrong
answers, but on students’ ability to explain their interpretation and to back it
up by reference to the transcript.
More advanced classes might choose to do Listening for Analysis without
looking at the transcript, perhaps just taking notes as the broadcast plays.
However, there are a number of advantages for having the transcript avail-
able. As students get used to using Twelve American Voices, the knowledge that
the transcript is available helps them to relax during First Listening and Lis-
tening for Comprehension. Additionally, the transcript helps students to see
the correlation between oral and written forms (students can see what a word
or phrase they have heard actually looks like), gives them more mastery of
the language in the broadcast, and gives them an opportunity to firm up their
understanding and ask more questions. Finally, the transcript can be used for
different purposes by students at different levels: weaker students can focus on
Introduction 7
literal meaning while stronger ones go on to higher levels of meaning and
interpretation.
In Listening for Analysis, students are also encouraged to ask questions
about points of interest in the broadcast that are not directly addressed by
the apparatus. This gives an opportunity for more student-centered explo-
ration of the language in the story and for students to define what they find
to be interesting and important. This can also be a good time for teachers to
give their own opinions of the broadcast, and to explain to students why they
think that way.
a f t e r l i st e n i n g
In this section of the lesson students express their own opinions, feelings, and
associations about the themes of the story they have been working with. This
is done both by analyzing the broadcast on its own terms, and by bringing
the themes and ideas it raises into students’ own lives.
Discussion Activities provide an opportunity for students to explore how
they and their classmates feel about the issues that have come up in the broad-
cast. There is often a chance to state an opinion about U.S. culture, and to
compare it to the culture of their home country. In most chapters, one dis-
cussion topic is more personal, asking students to relate the themes of the
broadcast to their own lives, and one asks students to discuss more general
issues relating to the culture at large. Students should always be allowed to
choose which topic to work on. This can be done by allowing choice within
each group or by organizing the groups on the basis of which topic students
wish to discuss.
The Discussion Activities are an important part of the process of inte-
grated skills work, as they give students a chance to use all the linguistic and
cultural input they have received in an open-ended way. If time runs short,
discussion can be resumed in the next class. In fact, students might even have
more to say about a broadcast after reflecting on it for a day or two.
Writing Activities are in many ways parallel to Discussion Activities, as
they ask students to express their ideas on the themes of the story and to pro-
duce language based on the input they have received. A choice is generally
given between different genres of writing and between more personal and
less personal topics. While some of the writing assignments can be collabora-
tive and are therefore likely to be done in class, most will be best assigned as
homework. Also, writing assignments represent perhaps the best opportunity
for assessment in the course of each chapter.
8 Introduction
Each chapter ends with a Project Activity (debate, research activity, class
survey, etc.) that offers an opportunity for students to explore the themes of
the story beyond normal classroom activities. These activities include more
extensive projects within the confines of the school (e.g., producing their own
TV talk show in Chapter 9) and projects that take them out of the classroom
to conduct research or to interact with the larger community (e.g., doing
research on the Civil Rights Movement in Chapter 11).
A Project Activity can be rewarding if done thoroughly and enthusiasti-
cally but is not generally necessary. And, depending on how they are struc-
tured, these activities can easily take up as much time as the rest of the chap-
ter put together. For these reasons it is not necessary to complete the Project
Activity for each chapter. Rather, these activities are given primarily as ideas
for expanding the themes of the broadcast into a larger, more student-
centered lesson.
Introduction 9
Notes on Chapters
Chapter 1 Hunan Chef
Introduction to the Broadcast
David Isay calls up his favorite Chinese restaurant for a delivery and is sur-
prised to learn that it is going out of business that very night. David heads
over to Hunan Chef to have a last dinner with David Ma, the owner, and to
reminisce about a place that has been his hangout for nearly a decade. We
learn something about David Isay’s personality and character—he’s both a
very loyal friend and a very finicky eater—in this bittersweet story.
“Hunan Chef ” serves as an introduction to Twelve American Voices in a
number of ways. It introduces David Isay to the students by having a greater
focus on David as a person that do most of the other chapters. The themes of
“Hunan Chef ” are also well suited to an introductory lesson. The subject of
restaurants is covered to some extent, but the main theme of the story is hav-
ing a “home away from home” and experiencing cross-cultural friendship.
Students may be interested to know that David Ma, after being forced out
of Manhattan by high rents, has opened a new restaurant in New Jersey, also
called Hunan Chef. David Isay is still in touch with him but of course doesn’t
get out there to eat nearly as much as he did at the old Hunan Chef.
c u lt u r e a n d la n guag e note s
PETER LORRE —Hungarian-born Hollywood character actor of the 1930s
and 1940s. His best-known role was as the nervous smuggler Ugarte
in the film Casablanca (1942).
FORTUNE COOKIE —A thin cookie folded around a slip of paper with a
fortune or bit of advice printed on it. Usually served at the end of the meal at
Chinese restaurants in the United States. The fortune cookie was introduced
in San Francisco in the 1960s and is not at all well known in China.
Notes on the Exercises
ori entation
Check that students are familiar with the sense of “regular” as used here to
describe a restaurant visited on an ongoing basis. You may want to relate it to
the term “home away from home,” which will be used in the Introduction.
One way to communicate to students what is expected would be to offer a
brief personal reminiscence of a place that once was your own home away
from home.
Once students are in working groups, it is advisable to limit their ex-
changes to five to ten minutes, as the purpose of this activity is to raise the
themes of the story rather than to exhaustively explore them. (Students will
have a chance to return to these ideas in the discussion and writing activities.)
For sharing, it probably is not practical to hear from all of the groups. Ask for
volunteers (it is fine for students to elect not to speak in front of the class at
this point) and have two or three people briefly summarize their stories.
vo c a b u l a ry
This exercise introduces potentially new words from the story grouped
around the theme of restaurants. Encourage students to pool their knowl-
edge before turning to the dictionary.
Whenever teaching vocabulary, it is useful to give students your opinion
about which words are more common and therefore useful (e.g., “sip,” “left-
overs”) and which are less so (e.g., “fare,” “carafe”). Note that the distinction
between “sliced” and “diced” plays a role in the broadcast.
14 Hunan Chef
The words “bill” and “check” are interchangeable here (both meaning
the amount of money due for a meal), but they have distinct meanings in
other areas (e.g., one might write a check to pay one’s credit card bill).
First Listening: Predicting
Note the use of modals and modal-like expressions (i.e., “must,” “might,”
and “do you think . . . probably”). You may want to review for students the
distinction between each. For example, it seems pretty clear from the name
that Hunan Chef serves Chinese food, though it may or may not specialize in
the cuisine of Hunan Province (in fact, it does not); whereas there are a wider
range of possible answers to the other items.
The prediction questions here are fairly low level. In later chapters, as the
students become more practiced at making predictions, more sophisticated,
global questions will be asked at this stage, and in some cases students will be
called on to generate their own predicting questions.
Each student should be encouraged to make an individual prediction.
If students are hesitant to predict, explain the concept of making an edu-
cated guess. It is not important that they be right, but they should put down
something to guide their first listening. You may want to gather a range of
predictions and put them on the board so that you can check them after the
first listening.
To ease anxiety, explain to students before the first listening that they will
be given plenty of further opportunities to hear the broadcast, and that they
will eventually have access to the transcript. When the tape finishes, allow
students to consult with each other before checking with you on the accuracy
of their predictions.
There are other possible answers besides those given. For example, it could
be argued that “the owner is a poor businessman” is a valid prediction, as
shown by the fact that David Ma did not seem to know about the rent hike in
advance. In principle, any response is valid as long as the student can support
it by referring to the broadcast.
Listening for Comprehension

Base the way you handle this activity on your students’ level and the amount
of difficulty they had with the first listening. For intermediate students it can
be useful to read through the comprehension questions, checking for under-
standing of what’s being asked and seeing which items need to be focused on.
Hunan Chef 15
(More advanced levels may be dropped into the listening after just taking a
moment to skim the questions.)
After the second listening has been completed, go over the answers one by
one. If the class is still having difficulty comprehending, a good technique is
to replay the story, stopping after the point that answers each question,
rewinding as many times as is necessary for students to hear how the answer
is provided. (It may help for you to have the transcript open as you do this,
though it is not suggested that students look at the transcript at this point.)
Most of the items in this exercise call for a fairly literal type of recall com-
prehension. Question 7, however, is a bit more complex, asking students to
relate the mixup between diced and sliced chicken. It could be given to a rel-
atively advanced student who is champing at the bit in the exercise.
An additional question to ask more advanced levels is, “How did David
feel when he read his fortune cookie?” The answer is complex; he was in one
sense disappointed, but he is also playing up his feelings of disappointment to
make an ironic, humorous point.
Language Focus A: Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs vary widely, particularly among different speech communi-
ties (e.g., between American English and British English). For this reason, ask-
ing students to learn a list of phrasal verbs and their definitions seems a mis-
application of energy.
Exercise A points out some of the principles underlying phrasal verb cre-
ation and then exposes students to a few authentic uses. Though the lan-
guage in this exercise is adapted, the phrasal verbs are in the same form as
they appeared in the broadcast.
Exercise B gives students some experience in seeing how a single preposi-
tion can combine with different lexical verbs to create different idiomatic
meanings. There is a twist to the answers: “up” is the answer to five of the
items while each of the other five particles appears only once. This is
intended to show how a single particle can have a range of other meanings
(although “up” is perhaps the most flexible particle in creating phrasal verbs,
each of the others given here—as well as many other prepositions—can be
used with a range of meanings). Point this out to students and see whether
they can infer what meaning “up” adds to the lexical verb in each of these
sentences.
Another important concept in working with phrasal verbs is that some are
separable (e.g., we can say either “call up Hunan Chef ” or “call Hunan Chef
up”) while others are nonseparable (e.g., we can say “head over to Hunan
16 Hunan Chef
Chef ” but not “head to Hunan Chef over”). Some examples of each type
are included, but this point isn’t directly presented.
A note on terminology: it would be more accurate to describe phrasal
verbs as “multiword verbs” and to call the word that combines with the lexi-
cal verb a “particle” rather than a preposition. Our decision here has been to
sacrifice technical accuracy for the sake of less-confusing terminology. You
can tell students that the “preposition” in a phrasal verb is not acting in the
way we expect a preposition to act (i.e., it is not joining with an object to
form a prepositional phrase) but rather is functioning as a part of the verb
phrase.
Listening for Analysis

The activity focuses on the emotional content of the relationship between
David Isay, David Ma, and the restaurant.
Of course, there is a range of possible answers to each of these questions.
Diverse answers should be encouraged as long as students can back up their
response by reference to the transcript. If students are hesitant to offer a
response, you might ask what a certain event shows (e.g., David eating at the
same restaurant for nine years) and brainstorm vocabulary for possible
responses on the blackboard (e.g., “loyal,” “conservative,” “boring,” etc.).
This activity also gives students an opportunity to pursue any language or
vocabulary points of interest that have not been covered elsewhere in the les-
son. It is our perspective, however, that understanding the story does not nec-
essarily mean being able to gloss every single lexical item. For example, stu-
dents might not get the reference to a busboy who looked something like a
“Chinese Peter Lorre.” Though this certainly can be explained if a student
asks about it, we consider it tangential to the story and not worth teaching
explicitly.
You may want to ask students what they think of David Ma’s ability to
speak English. Note that his language skills have many limitations (in terms of
grammar, pronunciation, etc.), but he does speak well enough to run a busi-
ness and, more important, to build a meaningful friendship.
Language Focus B: Vocabulary in Context (1)

This exercise focuses on a method for working to understand new vocabulary
that is useful both inside and outside the classroom. It is placed in Chapter 1
in hopes that students will get into the habit of using this technique regularly.
Students can use a dictionary if they get stuck but should be encouraged to
use context clues and to make educated guesses.
Hunan Chef 17
Discussion Activities
The saying in Activity A means that whenever someone offers something for
free, they will expect something in return. In responding to this question, stu-
dents may want to consider David Ma’s comment: “Money can buy some
things, of course it can buy some things. Some things it cannot buy. Like a
friend. We talk about it, you know what I’m saying. Keep the memories,
buddy. Just a friend.”
One view is that this broadcast shows that there can, in fact, be such a
thing as a free lunch. David Ma is picking up the tab for purely emotional
reasons, not because he wants to get anything back.
Activity B, on cross-cultural friendships, is more specifically personal as it
asks students to talk about their own lives and experiences. If students feel
they have never had a relationship with a person from a significantly different
background, they should be encouraged to do activity A.
Depending on class size and time available, you may want to ask one per-
son from each group to summarize their group’s discussion.
Writing Activities
Activity A calls for a personal narrative. Students can be encouraged to pay
particular attention to their use of past tense verbs, or to “showing” rather
than “telling,” etc.
Activity B calls for familiarity with a fairly specific genre of writing, the
review. To give more direction, introduce some other types of review (movies,
books, theater, etc.) and present some of the functions of a review: identifying
(providing the restaurant’s name and location); describing (talking about the
food, atmosphere, prices, etc.); and evaluating (talking about whether the
thing being reviewed is good, mediocre, or bad). Students can choose to write
about the restaurant they described in the orientation, building on what they
told their group.
Project Activity: Planning Your Own Restaurant

The directions given in the student book are deliberately open-ended.
Depending on time and interest level, this can be a fairly short wrap-up
discussion, or it could become an elaborate simulation activity. This activity
can be expanded in any number of directions (e.g., copying each group’s
menu and asking members to act as hosts in a roleplay of restaurant inter-
action). In either case, it’s important to give students clear guidelines on how
18 Hunan Chef
much time should be spent, what level of detail is required, and how the
activity will end.
If group presentations are made, the other students—the audience—
should be given a specific task to complete while listening (e.g., they can vote
on which restaurant they would like to have dinner at, or they can act as
investors choosing which they think is most likely to make money).
Hunan Chef 19
Chapter 2 The Nixie Clerk
David visits with Al Flynn, who works as a “nixie clerk,” one of the postal
workers responsible for dealing with envelopes bearing incomplete or hard-
to-read addresses. Though it is a tedious and difficult job, Al’s positive atti-
tude and sense of challenge allow him to find a great deal of satisfaction in
his work. Al even lets David take a shot at deciphering some of the hiero-
glyphic handwriting that goes into the mail.
The content area of this chapter is post offices, and exercises cover such
activities as postal vocabulary, addressing an envelope, and writing a business
letter. The main theme of the story is finding enjoyment in one’s work.
Depending on the sophistication of the class, you may want to contrast
Al’s positive attitude toward his work with the way that of some bureaucratic
employees who are not nearly as positive, or you may even mention the spate
of violent incidents by post office employees in recent years as reflected in the
idiom “to go postal,” meaning to express violent anger.
Another theme that can be brought out of this story is that of increasing
mechanization in the workplace. Al Flynn is an example of a human doing a
job that cannot be done by machines. Of course, the post office is becoming
more and more mechanized as fewer and fewer letters are addressed and
sorted by hand.
c u lt u r e a n d la n guag e note s
Students may understand from listening to Al Flynn that he is African-
American. This is reflected in both his general speaking style (pronunciation,
etc.) and in some ways in which his grammar is nonstandard (he says things
such as “a address” and “what they was trying to say”). A workable way of
addressing this complex issue is to note that there is a wide range of cultural
differences between the experience of blacks and those of other Americans,
and that this is quite naturally reflected in language use. African-American
English and nonstandard speech are dealt with more thoroughly in Language
Focus B of Chapter 11 (p. 00).
NIXIE CLERK —David defines NIXIE CLERK in the broadcast (“the term
is old post office slag for employees who deal with difficult mail”). You could
point out that this term is based on the somewhat archaic term NIX , meaning
“no, nothing” or general refusal (e.g., to nix a proposal).
ABIGAIL VAN BUREN —David seems to mistakenly think that this refers to
the wife of Martin van Buren (president of the United States from 1837–
1841). It actually refers to the popular advice columnist whose column is
“Dear Abby.” (President Van Buren was a widower while in office and did
not have a “first lady,” which is a term used for the wife of the president.)
SIGMUND FREUD —Austrian physician (1856 –1939) and the founder of
psychoanalysis. He no longer receives mail.
A TOUGHIE —an informal word meaning a difficult problem (i.e., one that
is tough to solve).
HIEROGLYPHIC handwriting—a term being used humorously to imply
that the handwriting appears so different from English that it might as well
be written in Egyptian hieroglyphs.
SCHLEP (also spelled SCHLEPP )—a word borrowed from Yiddish that
means to carry something (or to move yourself ) a long or laborious distance.
ori entation
This exercise points up some differences between post offices in the United
States and those in students’ home countries. A brief discussion will suffice to
get students thinking about post offices and how they operate. Notes are
22 The Nixie Clerk
given on answers that are not entirely predictable or that may not be familiar
to instructors from outside of the United States:
2. The word “utility” refers to such services as electricity, heating, trash
collection, and phone service. In the United States, these bills are paid
directly to the company that provides the service.
4. American post offices often have “wanted” posters with photos and
descriptions of criminals who are being sought by the authorities.
6. On reaching the age of eighteen, all American males are required to
register with the Selective Service in case of a military draft. This registration
is conducted by the post office.
8. While post offices in many countries have booths where long-distance
calls can be made, U.S. post offices do not offer phone service (though they
do, of course, often have pay phones on the premises that could be used for
a long-distance call).
vo c a b u l a ry
This exercise may seem overly simple to teachers who are native to the
United States, but there are some important differences between how
envelopes are addressed in different countries. Depending on their country
of origin, students may or may not need to have these pointed out.
1. A guiding principle in the United States (and in most Western nations) is
to begin with the more specific information (the addressee’s name) and move
to more general information on subsequent lines. (The placement of the zip
code at the end is an exception to this principle.) This is the opposite of how
addresses are organized in most Asian countries.
2. In the United States, return addresses typically appear on the front of
an envelope, as opposed to most European countries, in which the return
address is placed on the back.
Some further notes:
1. Most envelopes are now read by machines (rather than by humans
operating machines, as in this story). Therefore, the post office prefers that
there be no punctuation on envelopes.
2. There are standard two-letter abbreviations for all fifty states (e.g., CA
for California; NY for New York).
3. The zip code, which appears on the same line as the state, is now being
replaced by the “zip + four,” although most individuals do not yet use this
system when addressing envelopes.
The Nixie Clerk 23

The key idea here is that problem envelopes are “rejected” from the mecha-
nized sorting system and given to a nixie clerk. If the clerk is successful in
reading them, they will be put back into the system. If not, they are sent to a
dead letter office. A rough understanding of this process, and the nixie clerk’s
role in it, is sufficient at this point.

Understanding item 8, that Al takes a real satisfaction in his job, is important
and will be built upon in Listening for Analysis.
Language Focus A: Nonsexist Language

You may want to preface this exercise by having a brief talk with students
about the nature of sexism and why avoiding sexist language and sexual
stereotyping is important. It can be pointed out that in addition to issues of
social justice, sexist language also tends to sound archaic and to show an
unfamiliarity with contemporary norms of language usage. Beyond the mate-
rial presented in the book, feel free to give your own impressions of what is
appropriate in these areas and to give your own explanations for what feels
most natural to you.
There is not a truly satisfactory solution to all the items. Any such word
ending in “-person” is a compromise at best. The point of this exercise is to
introduce the concept of gender-neutral terminology to get students thinking
about this and related issues.
In addition to the items presented in this exercise, some are uncomfortable
with such terms as actor/actress and waiter/waitress, which are divided
according to gender. There are two tactics for remedying this. Many female
performers prefer to be called actors, while the terms waiter and waitress are
often replaced with “server” or “wait person.”
Though this language focus explores only a small corner of gender and
language issues, it may provide an opportunity for you to open up this topic a
bit more. Another valuable point (and one used in addressing envelopes and
letters) is the contrast between Miss, Mrs., and Ms. Although Ms. has become
more widely used in recent decades, there are still situations in which Miss or
Mrs. are appropriate. U.S.-born teachers may want to reflect for a moment
on how they use these terms in their own lives (think about who in your own
family prefers each title) and then use those as examples for their class.
24 The Nixie Clerk

In addition to the answers suggested in the student book, other passages—
including ones arguing that Al does not have one or more of these quali-
ties—are acceptable as long as students can explain their interpretation.
Note that many of the expressions Al uses are highly idiomatic, especially
such interjections as “Bingo!” and “I love it like that!” The literal meaning of
these expressions is generally less important than the enthusiasm they convey.
Language Focus B: Describing a Process with Vivid Simple Present Verbs

David’s use of the simple present is an illustration of how verb form usage is
often a matter of choice rather than of what is right and wrong. (Though
once a choice has been made, it’s important to use it consistently.) By choos-
ing the simple present rather than a past tense, David makes the story more
immediate. Note that we often do this when telling a joke or an anecdote
(e.g., “Two guys go into a bar . . . ”). And of course the vividness of the
description is heightened by the specific vocabulary David chooses.
Part A of this exercise is quite simple, though more advanced students
may be interested in the way David uses a string of clauses to create a fairly
complex sentence. Essentially, though, Part A is a warm-up for the more sub-
stantial part of the exercise, which comes in Part B. Part B can be quite fun if
emphasis is placed on making the students’ writing as vivid and descriptive as
possible. If time is short, Part B could be set as homework or as an alternative
to the writing assignments in After Listening.
You may want to adjust your presentation of this exercise depending on
whether most of your students have jobs or are full-time students. In either
case, the emphasis should be put on thinking about the different principles
that make a job rewarding. The concept of “telecommuting” in item 3 may
be new to many students.
Writing Activity
Depending on class interest, you may want to present the differences be-
tween personal and business letters in some depth: block versus indented
paragraphs; usually typewritten versus often handwritten; formal versus
informal tone, etc.
The Nixie Clerk 25

Form is particularly important in business letters, so it may be worth
spending some time on all the elements that may be unfamiliar to your
students. In addressing a letter to an unknown recipient, it is usual to use
“Dear Sir or Madam,” although this does sound a bit archaic; a substitution
may be sought when possible, such as “Dear Admissions/Human Resources/
Personnel Officer.”
Project Activity: Researching Your Ideal Job

This activity requires a bit of work on the part of the students—and using
part of a future class meeting for reporting—but it can be rewarding. It is
important to set guidelines for reporting: students should make their presen-
tations brief (e.g., no more than five minutes), and those listening to the pre-
sentations should be encouraged to participate by asking questions.
This activity will have to be modified if your students have limited access
to native speakers to serve as interview subjects. They can interview other
teachers at your school, do an imaginary interview with a politician or
celebrity (roleplaying the responses), or, if necessary, conduct the interview in
the student’s first language, as long as the reporting is done in English.
Whenever asking students to interview members of the public, be careful
to explain appropriate language and behavior for approaching a stranger
(e.g., “Excuse me. I’m doing some research for my English class. May I ask
you a few questions?”). Also, if students are going to interviewing people on
the street, it is advisable to have them work in pairs or small groups.
26 The Nixie Clerk

Chapter 3 Airplane Ashes
Dick Falk is a somewhat eccentric man who operates a truly unusual funeral
service. Falk will pack the cremated remains of your loved one into an oat-
meal canister and take them up in a single-engine Cessna, reciting poetry as
he scatters them over your choice of New York City–area landmark.
Although death is a serious topic, this broadcast is quite lighthearted, and
most students find Dick Falk endearing, if something of an oddball. The
broadcast also gives an interesting example of a nontraditional way of ob-
serving the end of a human life. This creates a good opportunity to discuss
rituals, both those relating to death and those dealing with other aspects of
life, as they are performed in the United States and in the students’ home
countries.
c u lt u r e a n d la n g uag e note s
QUAKER OATS —a brand of oatmeal sold in a round canister that features
a drawing of a man in the traditional dress of the Quakers, a religious group
whose official name is the Society of Friends. The box is featured in the pic-
ture on the Chapter Opener page.
YELLOW PAGES —A telephone directory, usually printed on yellow paper,
that lists businesses, services, or products alphabetically according to field.
CESSNA —the make of the small airplane that Dick Falk uses.
12- MILE LIMIT —The offshore boundary of a coastal state in the United
States, extending 12 miles (19 km) into the ocean.
The broadcast contains a number of place names from the New York
city area:
CONEY ISLAND —a beach area in Brooklyn, New York, famous for its
boardwalk amusements.
THE CATSKILLS —a mountain range and resort area in southeastern New
York state.
ASBURY PARK and ATLANTIC CITY —beach resort areas in New Jersey.
Asbury Park is best known as the hometown of musician Bruce Springsteen;
Atlantic City is famous for its casinos.
HUDSON RIVER —a major river flowing through New York state and along
the west side of Manhattan.
42 ND STREET —a street in New York City traditionally known for its
(sometimes seedy) nightlife.
“HE DID TWENTY YEARS IN SING SING .”—Sing Sing is a prison in Ossin-
ing, New York; the verb “did” here means that he served twenty years in the
prison.
“ THE U. N. ON EAST RIVER ”—The United Nations (U.N.) headquarters
building is located on the east end of 42nd Street in Manhattan, alongside
the East River.
ori entation
Death is a sensitive topic that needs to be handled carefully, particularly in a
cross-cultural context. If you present this orientation in a matter-of-fact way,
however, students will usually follow your lead. NB: handling the orientation
in too serious a manner will clash with the light tone of the story.
Topic 1 is fairly objective (and can be quite interesting in a multicultural
classroom), and Topic 2 is more personal. Encourage anyone who feels
uncomfortable to choose Topic 1 rather than Topic 2. Alternatively, students
can be given the option of listening only during this activity (though those
28 Airplane Ashes
who wish to talk about a personal experience should be given sufficient time
to do so without feeling rushed).
vo c a b u l a ry
Some of the words here may come up in the Orientation activity or in com-
paring different societies (e.g., Is cremation or burial more common in your
home country?).
“Urn” and “casket” are not high-frequency words. The inclusion of
“pilot” and “oatmeal box,” the answers to item 4, may seem a bit odd, but
the terms foreshadow the unusual service offered by Airplane Ashes.
If time allows, this chapter presents interesting opportunities to work on
word formation (e.g., “to cremate, cremated, cremation” or “to mourn,
mourning, mourners”).
Listening and Understanding
f i r st l i st e n i n g : p r e d i c t i n g
The photo of Dick Falk can be particularly helpful here. Encourage students
to speculate about who the person in the photograph is and what kind of
person he might be. (You can give them the forms “He looks + adjective”
versus “He looks like + noun phrase.”) Responses can be compared to the
description of Dick Falk’s appearance, which is given early in the broadcast.
(Referring students to the photo is probably the best way to define such
phrases in the broadcast as “handlebar moustache” and “snow-white
goatee.”)

Students can expand on question 2 by discussing all the ways that Airplane
Ashes is, in fact, personalized (Falk gives individual attention, takes an interest
in the lives of the deceased, recites a poem, etc.).
Question 3 asks for students to tell a short narrative.
Students may be interested in the geography of New York City, which is
alluded to. You might sketch a map on the board to show where the places
mentioned are located.
Language Focus A: Parts of the Body Used as Verbs

Check that students have an understanding of the metaphorical sense of
each body part, some of which are straightforward (e.g., “hand” and “elbow”
Airplane Ashes 29
as verbs) and some of which are less so (e.g., “to foot the bill,” “to nose
around”). It can be helpful to demonstrate the imagery underlying, for
example, “elbowing one’s way through a crowd.”
Note that in the exercise, students are called on to use the appropriate
form of the verb, which is not always the simple form as given in the box.

This exercise is intended to give students some sense of Dick Falk’s eccen-
tricity and the enthusiastic, uninhibited way that he discusses death, a topic
usually dealt with in a more somber manner. It is difficult to describe exactly
what it is about Dick Falk’s way of speaking that expresses this, but it can be
valuable for students to try to put his speaking style into words. The issue of
whether it is appropriate to talk about death in such an informal way will be
explored more fully in the After Listening activities.
Language Focus B: Sequence Words

All of these words could more technically be referred to as temporal dis-
course markers, but we refer to them as sequence words, a term that we hope
will be more accessible to students.
You may want to point out to students that when sequence words start a
sentence, they are generally set off by a comma.
NB: “Actually” is a false cognate of the French word actuellment. In English,
it has no temporal meaning but rather expresses contrast with what would be
expected in a given situation, similar in meaning to “really” (e.g., “Judging
from how he dresses, you might think that he has no money, but he’s actually
quite wealthy.”).
Topic A may be too personal for some students, but it has the potential to
lead to some very revealing discussions. Topic B is less personal and therefore
may be a good choice for those who find Topic 1 uncomfortable. If students
seem slow to warm to this idea, try relating it to Airplane Ashes, which is
very different from a traditional funeral, and list the things that are lost (e.g.,
no friends and family can participate in an Airplane Ashes funeral) and those
that are gained (e.g., an Airplane Ashes funeral is cheaper and more environ-
mentally sound than burial).
30 Airplane Ashes
Writing Activities
Again Topic A is more personal and should be handled carefully. If students
are comfortable taking a lighthearted approach, these essays can be quite fun
to read aloud. Topic B gives students the latitude to interpret the idea of a
ritual more broadly. In a multicultural classroom, students might be inter-
ested in hearing about rituals from a country they are not familiar with.
Project Activity: Researching an Unusual Business

This activity is probably most appropriate in the United States, where the
yellow pages can be a rich source of cultural information for ESL students.
As an alternative, students who have internet access could find and report on
a web page run by an unusual business or institution.
Airplane Ashes 31
Chapter 4 Chained Girl
When Eliezar and Linda Marrero found that they could no longer control
their crack-addicted twelve-year-old daughter, they took a step that many
would consider unthinkable: chaining her to a radiator in their apartment. As
David Isay interviews the family and their neighbors, the conditions in their
neighborhood and the lack of other alternatives makes their decision some-
what understandable if still upsetting.
The Marreros live in the South Bronx, long regarded as one of the least
safe and most drug-ridden neighborhoods in the United States, though great
improvements have been made in recent years.
Students will probably notice that the Marreros are Latino and do not
appear to be native speakers of English. Although the broadcast does not
directly approach this issue, students may want to know something about the
high percentage of minorities living in such neighborhoods.
CRACK —a cheap, potent, and highly addictive smokable form of cocaine
that is often sold on the streets of urban areas.
CRACK HOUSE —a place where this drug is sold and used.
RIKERS ISLAND —a jail located on a small island in New York City.
ori entation
In explaining this proverb, you may want to explain what “rod” and “spare”
mean in isolation, though they are both low-frequency words. (Point out that
proverbs often contain somewhat archaic language.) Students’ first languages
will probably have some similar expression, or perhaps another proverb deal-
ing with raising children, and students should be encouraged to compare.
Of course, physical punishment (and the line between punishment and
child abuse) is a volatile topic. Let students know that it is all right not to con-
tribute if they are uncomfortable doing so. Additionally, be cautious about
rendering judgments if students’ values differ from your own.
Although students may want to debate this issue, discussion should be lim-
ited at this point. Once students have considered the ideas of when it is okay
to physically discipline children and at what point, if any, the government
should get involved, they are ready to move on to the broadcast. There will
be opportunities for further discussion later in the chapter.
vo c a b u l a ry
This activity presents words related to the themes of crime, punishment, and
discipline. All words come from the broadcast. “Shackle” is a low-frequency
word but one that is important in this broadcast. As used here, to shackle
someone means essentially the same thing as to chain them up.
This activity is designed to create a real surprise for the students. Before hear-
ing the broadcast, students usually see the parents as clearly abusive and can
imagine no valid reason for chaining a child. (Though it is, of course, pos-
sible that some students might guess something close to the truth.) Therefore,
34 Chained Girl
the fact that they appear to be concerned parents who acted out of genuinely
good motivations often causes students to change their positions dramatically.
After listening you may wish ask students how their attitude toward the par-
ents has changed since making their predictions; allow a couple of silent
moments for students to consider the question before comparing responses.

Question 3 is a bit difficult. It may help to explain the idea of “getting the
runaround” from a government agency. This expression means that the Mar-
reros were sent from office to office but not given any real help. This is what
David Isay means by “bounced back and forth in a bureaucratic nightmare.”
The sentence “Confidentiality prevents New York City’s human resource
administration from commenting on the case” explains why this broadcast
does not contain the city’s point of view. (This is a difficult sentence to under-
stand, so it may be worth pointing it out and explaining.)
For question 6, consider explaining the concept of an anonymous tip—
that someone calls the police to report a situation but does not give a name
when doing so.
Language Focus A: Preposition Combinations

Prepositions are notoriously difficult to teach in any systematic way. Here the
approach taken is to look at prepositions in relation to the words they tend to
collate with. (More work on prepositions is given in Chapter 11 [p. 00].)
You may want to point out the relationship between these preposition
combinations and phrasal verbs (which often appear similar but in which the
“preposition” is no longer acting as a preposition and is therefore better
described as a “particle” in the verb phrase).

Before this exercise, go over the meaning of words that describe such emo-
tions as sadness, anger, frustration, desperation, etc., and add any words that
you think are appropriate. Also note that a single person might be feeling
more than one emotion. For example, Eliezar and Maria Marrero might be
frustrated with their daughter, angry at the drug dealers, and bewildered by
their having been arrested.
It is acceptable for students to be somewhat speculative in making judg-
ments about what the people in the broadcast were feeling. Not all responses
need to be tied directly to what is said in the broadcast; students can feel free
to offer interpretations of how these four people probably feel.
Chained Girl 35
Language Focus B: Features of Spoken Language
Students may be struck by the number of times that Roy Friberg uses such
expressions as “you know what I mean,” “like,” and “blah, blah, blah.” While
these, especially the first two, are often regarded as markers of noneloquence,
they are a natural part of unrehearsed speech and everyone uses such expres-
sions, or similar ones, to some extent.
Discussion Activity
In this chapter there is no choice of discussion topics. Instead, students are
asked to work on a single activity that confronts some of the complex social
issues raised by the broadcast.
This activity is essentially a values clarification exercise that seeks to
uncover students’ values by having them evaluate the morality or responsibil-
ity of a number of people involved in a single conflict. If students don’t seem
ready to rank all participants individually, they can simply be asked to pick
the two or three who acted best and the two or three who acted worst.
This activity may produce some heated debate. Part of the teacher’s role
will be to make sure that all discussions remain civil. (You might want to pre-
teach some of the language of polite disagreement.)
Writing Activities
Topic A is more personal, asking students to relate personally to the theme of
being in a desperate situation. Of course, students should not feel that they
need to describe a situation as dramatic or as desperate as that facing the
Marreros. In organizing their writing, students should be encouraged to
describe the situation clearly and then explain how they attempted to solve it,
whether they were successful or not.
Topic B calls for a less personal type of writing, the argumentative essay.
Students may choose whether to use the Marrero family as one of their
examples.
Project Activity: Debating How to Fight Illegal Drugs

This is an extensive activity that will typically take an entire class meeting to
perform. Consider assigning the roles in this in advance of the class in which
the debate will occur so that students have time to develop their arguments.
Teams can be encouraged to meet and prepare for the debate outside of
class time.
36 Chained Girl
If there is not an equal number of students who want to be on opposite
sides, explain that in a debate one is sometimes called on to argue against
one’s actual beliefs.
If you would rather not choose a winner (and a tie is always an option),
consider having a class vote or asking each student to compose a written
evaluation (Did the best team win? Were the ideas presented fairly? etc.)
Chained Girl 37
Chapter 5 Senior DJs
When Esther and Meyer Sherr could no longer find orchestras that played
their kind of dance music, they didn’t just stay home and kvetch, they did
something about it. They started a business called “Senior DJs”—a low-tech
mobile entertainment team to bring the music of a previous era to senior and
community centers. In this story David Isay looks at how the singles scene is
different after seventy and what it takes to keep the floor full on the senior
dance circuit.
Though essentially fun and lighthearted, this broadcast gives students an
opportunity to consider the situation of the elderly and to consider how the
lives and problems of senior citizens are different in the United States than in
their home country.
c u lt u r a l a n d la n g uag e note s
Students may notice that many of the characters depicted in the broadcast
are Jewish and that some of their language (e.g., the way Rita introduces the
Sherrs) reflects a Jewish style of communication. Also, the phrase, “how this
night is different from all other nights” is a reference to a ritual observed dur-
ing the Jewish holiday of Passover.
MADONNA (b. 1958)—a popular singer and actress whose successful
career is marked by her deliberately provocative behavior and often sexual
image.
2 LIVE CREW —a rap group that gained a good deal of notoriety for its
explicitly sexual lyrics, setting off a debate about placing controls on lyrics of
popular music.
THE LAMBADA —a highly sensual South American dance that enjoyed a
brief vogue in the United States around the time that this story was recorded.
The lambada is said to be a very sexual dance, sometimes referred to as he
“forbidden dance.”
LO AND BEHOLD —This highly idiomatic expression serves as an interjec-
tion indicating surprise.
KVETCHING —Borrowed into English from Yiddish, the verb “to kvetch”
means to sit around and complain.
Notes on Exercises
ori entation
Part A asks students to express their feelings about aging. This can be done
with minimal preparation, and it is probably best not to model a response for
students so that they are more likely to say what they truly feel.
Part B asks students to discuss in less personal terms the role of older
people in their home country. If students seem resistant to the kind of per-
sonal expression called for in Part A, it can be omitted and Part B used as
the entire orientation.
vo c a b u l a ry
While these terms may seem quite basic, there are some interesting subtleties
of meaning. Be sure that students are not under the impression that the age
terms are exclusive (i.e., emphasize that they do overlap quite a bit).
Additionally, this exercise can raise some questions about what it means to
be an adult in the United States. Why is it, for example, that one can drive a
car at sixteen and serve in the military at eighteen but cannot legally drink
beer or other alcoholic beverages until twenty-one? Some would argue that
adolescence in the United States is lasting longer and longer, and that now
40 Senior DJs
twenty-two, the age people typically finish college, might be a more appropri-
ate upper limit than nineteen.
Note the difference between “child” as an age word (and some might
argue that childhood ends when adolescence begins) and the use of “child”
as a relationship word, in that a sixty-five-year-old parent might have a forty-
year-old child.
Students are asked to generate their own prediction questions. Note that
some quite reasonable prediction questions might not be answered. If an
answer to a question is not answered, ask whether the students can infer the
answer from what they do hear.

Item 5 is relatively difficult, as students must infer the answer from what
Meyer says not to do. Item 8 is something of a lead-in to the Listening for
Analysis exercise, which looks at how DJ-ing helps keep the Shurrs young
despite problems associated with aging.
Language Focus A: Using Descriptive Adverbs

Exercise A is based directly on the broadcast and shows how adverbs can be
used to give color and precision to a description. Exercise B gives students
some exposure to the difference between adverbs and adjectives, with partic-
ular attention to common troublespot of “well” and “good.”

Students may well have a range of different answers to this exercise. All
answers are acceptable as long as they can be explained by referring to the
broadcast. Sample responses are given in the Answer Key at the back of the
Student Book.
Language Focus B: Using “Will” and “Going To”

This is a subtle grammar point, and one that most students at this level could
use some work on. You can point out that English, unlike many languages,
does not have a future tense. That is, the verbs do not inflect to express the
future; rather, the modal auxiliary “will” and the modal-like expression
“going to” are used.
Senior DJs 41
Note in the examples that the first two are noncontracted forms and that
the second two use contracted forms (as they are taken from spontaneous
oral speech).
Remind students that in a ranking activity of this type, their answers them-
selves (i.e., what they put as 1, 2, 3, and 4) are much less important than are
their reasons for those decisions. Students can also be encouraged to suggest
other options for organizing one’s retirement, or to make interpretations of
what kind of people are likely to choose each of these lifestyles, and what
each option reveals about the lives of older people in the United States.
Writing Activities
Topic A calls for a personal, descriptive essay, and Topic B calls for an argu-
mentative essay.
The instructions for Topic A have intentionally been left quite open so that
students might approach the topic in any way they feel comfortable. If you
would like to give a more directed assignment, consider the following version
of the same topic:
A. Write an essay describing an elderly person you admire. Begin by
clearly stating why you admire this person. For example, identify two or three
of this person’s admirable characteristics. Then give an example or relate an
incident that illustrates each of the characteristics you have mentioned. End
the essay by saying how this person has influenced your life and in what way
you would like to be like him or her.
Project Activity: Planning for an Aging Population

This activity is similar to the planning a restaurant activity at the end of
Chapter 1, and most of the advice given there applies here. For the sake of a
lively class, encourage students to come up with something creative and origi-
nal in the spirit of Senior DJs.
42 Senior DJs
Chapter 6 Advance Obituaries
David Isay offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the New York Times
always manages to have a thoughtful, comprehensive last word ready to go
when any well-known person passes away. Peter Flint and Marilyn Burger
disclose their methods of ensuring that such important figures as Henry
Fonda get the farewell they deserve in America’s paper of record.
JOAN CRAWFORD (1904–1977)—An actress and Hollywood star for more
than fifty years, she won an Academy Award for her role in Mildred Pierce
(1945).
HITCHCOCK —British-born Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) was the direc-
tor of such classic Hollywood suspense films as Rear Window (1954) and
Psycho (1960).
GHOUL POOL —This humorous phrase means that the reporters were
betting on which of the advance obituary “clients” would die next. “Ghoul”
means an evil demon or ghost (or a person who enjoys revolting things) while
“pool” refers to a type of betting arrangement in which many people con-
tribute money and one person wins the resulting pot.
PAPER OF RECORD —This phrase, applied to the New York Times, means
that the Times fulfills a semi-official function in the United States as the
paper that serves as the “first draft of history.” It is relied on as an authority
in many matters.
HENRY FONDA (1905–1982)—A star of American films and theater, whose
great movie roles included dramas, such as The Grapes of Wrath (1940), come-
dies such as The Lady Eve (1941), and Westerns such as My Darling Clementine
(1946). For more information, see Peter Flint’s obituary, as reproduced in the
transcript of the broadcast.
A PRAIRIE GALAHAD —In the legend of King Arthur and the Round
Table, Galahad was the noblest and purest night. This phrase means that
Fonda filled much the same role as Galahad, but on the prairies of the Amer-
ican West.
IN LIEU OF FLOWERS —This request means that instead of sending flow-
ers in memory of Fonda, well-wishers are asked to contribute the money they
would have spent to a certain charity (“in lieu of ” means in place of or
instead of ).
ori entation
This exercise is intended to get students to talk about their own experiences
with newspapers and to activate the world of newspaper journalism in prepa-
ration for their listening. You may need to explain the different features found
in a newspaper.
vo c a b u l a ry
Not all of these words appear in the broadcast, but they are central to the
content area of newspapers and journalism and will be of use to students in
discussing the broadcast.
The questions that students ask in item 2 will depend largely on how accurate
they were in answering item 1 (i.e., if they realize that the obituaries are
44 Advance Obituaries
being written about still-living people, they might include “interviewing the
subject” as a response to item 2.) Still, it is better not to give away the answer
to item 1 and to ask students to listen for it in the broadcast.

Item 7 calls for a degree of interpretation.
Item 8 can be answered very simply (e.g., “he was an actor”) or in a great
deal of detail. Encourage students to pick up from Peter Flint’s obituary a bit
more about what kinds of characters Fonda played, what he was like as a
person, etc.

Students may well disagree about Peter Flint’s speaking style. He speaks
slowly and haltingly and seems to be choosing his words very carefully, to a
point where some might find him frustrating to listen to. His writing is much
smoother and even eloquent.
Question 3 asks students to make judgments about the quality of his writ-
ing style. Some may feel they lack the authority to do this, but encourage
them to express an opinion or at least to give their reaction.
Language Focus A: Past Tense Verbs in Context

This exercise is intended to illustrate how the simple past often serves as a
baseline frame of reference in narrative. When telling a narrative in the past,
a basic time idea is established, and the same tense should be used through-
out except when there is a reason to use a different verb form.
In addition to the simple present verbs at the end of the passage in Part A,
you may want to point out the different idea expressed by the phrase “had
long been” between items 4 and 5.
This exercise assumes a familiarity with how to form the simple past tense,
including irregular forms and passive forms. If students are weak on the
simple past, introduce the forms before going on.
In Part B, some students may be uncomfortable with writing about a time
after their death, but we hope most will get into the spirit of the broadcast.
Also encourage them, if they wish, to use quotes from their subject in their
advance obituary (and remind them to observe the appropriate verb forms
for direct and indirect quotation). They can be encouraged to begin with the
same kind of first sentence as used by the real advance obituary writers, leav-
ing blanks for date of death and age.
Advance Obituaries 45
Language Focus B: Using the Passive Voice
The exercise focuses on the use of passive voice as a choice and directs stu-
dents to think about such questions as why the passive is used in some situa-
tions and not others, when it is particularly effective, etc. In explaining the
use of any given passive form, it can be relevant to talk about the focus of a
larger stretch of discourse (e.g., for the first two sample answers given to
Exercise A, note that the larger focus is on explaining Peter Finch’s job, so the
focus is on him).
The exercise assumes a basic familiarity with the forms of the passive. If
needed, the forms of the passive (including modals and progressives) could be
presented on the board in advance.
Discussion Activity
This is a values-clarification ranking activity similar to that in Chapter 5, but
in the world of journalism. It is meant to raise questions about who “should”
be considered more important as opposed to who “is” considered more
important. Questions to consider include: Should the newspaper try to shape
public taste or merely reflect it? Should it highlight the lives of people of sub-
stance (2 and 3) or emphasize the sensational lives of people who will pre-
sumably sell more newspapers (1 and 4).
If students choose to, they can overthrow the choices offered—an editorial
board can, of course, choose to use whatever kinds of stories it prefers—and
all or none of the stories can be on the front page. As always in such an activ-
ity, the decisions that students make are less important than their explana-
tions for these choices.
Writing Activities
Topic A is personal. Although related to the broadcast, it does not directly
deal with obituaries and may be preferred by some students for this reason.
Topic B can be based either on personal knowledge or on research. If stu-
dents wish, they can expand the paragraph written for Part B of Language
Focus A into an essay.
Project Activity: Presenting a Newspaper Article

This exercise calls on students to find their own piece of authentic language-
learning material. Most students are fascinated with having a chance to work
with U.S. newspapers; they may be particularly interested in finding how
news of their home countries is reported in them. In classrooms outside of
46 Advance Obituaries
the United States, the International Herald Tribune is a good resource for this
activity, as are the large number of newspapers that make articles available
free of charge over the Internet. Of course, students could also choose arti-
cles from a non-U.S. English-language newspaper.
The presentation of the articles offers a good opportunity to work on oral
presentation skills. (For example, students should be encouraged to look at the
audience when speaking, use the blackboard to present new vocabulary, and
not to simply read from the chosen article.) If students choose articles that
are too long, you can edit them to an appropriate length.
In a more advanced class, extend this exercise by asking of each article
presented the question, “Could an article on this subject appear in your
home country? If not, why not? If so, how would it be different?”
Advance Obituaries 47
Chapter 7 Diaryman
Robert Shields is a retired minister in the Pacific Northwest who has become
obsessed with documenting his life almost to the exclusion of living it. He
records literally all the events of his life, making entries for each five-minute
period, in a diary that has grown to more than 25 million words.
This broadcast is both funny and somewhat disconcerting, raising ques-
tions about the purpose of journal writing and about the decisions most of us
make concerning what is and isn’t worth remembering. It is one of the best
known of David Isay’s stories, having been rebroadcast on National Public
Radio many times.
IBM WHEELWRITER —a brand name of electric typewriter (see photo).
ALASKA RED SALMON by BUMBLEBEE —a brand name of canned fish.
THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS —A reference book contain-
ing memorable sayings (“quotations”) by many people.
THE TRI - CITY HERALD —Shields’ local newspaper.
THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS —a short and very famous speech made by
President Abraham Lincoln while dedicating a Civil War cemetery in Gettys-
burg, Pennsylvania, in 1863.
ARCHWAY SUGAR COOKIES—a brand name of cookies.
M c QUARRY —Shields’ local supermarket.
WALLA WALLA —the largest city nearby Shields’ home in the town of Day-
ton, Washington.
ori entation
This activity prepares students for the story by asking them to do some jour-
nal writing and to reflect on it briefly. Give only minimal direction on how to
write or what to discuss; later parts of the chapter (including Writing Activity
A) will call on students to think more about their writing process.
A note on “sharing” writing: students can elect to read their work aloud or
simply to tell the other students what they wrote about. In either case, the
student who is sharing should feel free to exclude any parts that he or she
would rather keep private. Exchanging papers to read is an option with small
groups (e.g., maximum three students).
vo c a b u l a ry
Not all of the items presented here occur in the broadcast, but they are cen-
tral to the general theme of writing. Some of the items (e.g., “journal” and
“diary”) overlap quite a bit, and some may be used differently in American
and British English (e.g., “schedule” in the U.S. versus “agenda” in the U.K.).
In addition to the definitions given, consider explaining how you think of and
use each of these words.
It is important to emphasize that Shields’s diary will be “complete” in a way
that students might not anticipate. Encourage students to make predictions
50 Diaryman
that are as specific as possible. (e.g., ask, “What kinds of things do you think
would normally not be put in a diary?” and see if he includes those.)
Groups may come up with questions that are not answered in the text. If
such questions are put forward, don’t veto them. Students can speculate at
the end what the answers would be. Do tell the students, though, that not all
the questions will be answered.
There are three “voices” in this story; David’s, Shields’s, and Shields read-
ing from his diary (marked by italics in the transcript). Point out to students
that when Shields reads out days and times he is reading his diary entries ver-
batim.

This story has an unusual format—there’s little narrative to be told, and it’s
almost more an interview with the diary than with Shields himself. There-
fore, the note-taking part of this exercise ensures that students understand
the content of the diary, and the three other questions check the relationship
between the diary and the man.
Language Focus A: Units of Measure

This exercise focuses on units of measure (e.g., ounces, degrees, etc.), their
abbreviations, and some of the symbols that replace them. These abbrevia-
tions often do not seem directly connected to the word they stand for, and,
additionally they are sometimes pronounced in unpredictable ways (e.g., lbs.
pronounced as “pounds”).

Items 1 and 2 are fairly straightforward, while item 3 asks students to make
what could be a more difficult value judgment. In explaining the difference
between “eccentric” and “crazy,” point out that these words are not being
used as technical psychological terms. Rather, a crazy person can be seen as
one whose behavior is extreme and unacceptable in a way that an eccentric
person’s is not.
Language Focus B: Vocabulary in Context (2)

Most of the lexical items focused on here are fairly high level (i.e., typical of
what’s thought of as an educated vocabulary). Context may not be sufficient
for students to understand all of them, but they should use context clues as
much as possible, along with a process of elimination, before resorting to dic-
tionaries.
Diaryman 51
Topic A, in which students are asked to make a judgment about their per-
sonal response to Shields, is fairly well structured. Topic B, in which students
are asked to reflect on the role of writing in their life and its importance, is
wider in scope and open to a broader range of discussion. Topic B tends to
be more appropriate for groups that are self-motivated and inquisitive.
Writing Activities
Topic A is an exercise in a type of process writing: constructing a longer
essay from a “kernel” sentence. The idea is that if students pick a narrow
enough topic—a single event from their day, rather than the whole day—and
a topic that is intriguing to them, they are likely to be able to cover their topic
more completely and to produce some valuable writing.
Topic B could be used as an alternative project activity, in that it asks stu-
dents to continue their work outside of the classroom and then report back in
a future class. The students’ actual writing is unlikely to be as interesting or
valuable as the observations they make about how it felt to do that kind of
recordkeeping. In reporting, students should of course be allowed to leave
out any personal details that they don’t want to share.
Project Activity: Survey on Writing

The class survey is a lively activity that can produce interesting comments
from students. Make sure that all of the students understand the questions
before you assign one question to each student. The questions are of varying
difficulty and depth, so care should be taken when assigning questions. Feel
free to make up your own questions, preferably related to the theme of
writing.
This activity takes roughly an hour of class time. This can be shortened by
reducing the number of people each student is expected to interview (e.g., if
they are asked to talk only to five people, they could probably do that in fif-
teen minutes—though it still takes time for students to report).
Encourage short, snappy reports; a two- or three-minute time limit might
be appropriate. This teaches students the important presentation skill of
being concise and also helps the class to move along. With higher level classes
you can talk about how to present the results of a survey (e.g., give the raw
numbers, an observation of trends, some interpretation, etc.)
A similar activity would require students to ask eight to ten people outside
the school for their responses; they would report in a future class session.
52 Diaryman
Whenever asking students to interview members of the public, be sure to
explain appropriate language and behavior for approaching a stranger (e.g.,
“Excuse me. I’m doing some research for my English class. May I ask you a
few questions?”). Also, if students are going to interviewing people on the
street, it is advisable to have them work in pairs or small groups.
Diaryman 53
Chapter 8 Passover Wine
For more than one hundred years Schapiro’s Wine Shop has been selling the
thick syrupy Kosher wine that is central to Jewish religious holidays. A visit
just before Passover introduces us to this mom-and-pop establishment and to
the colorful characters who consider it part of their holiday traditions. The
visit also prompts David to remember his own first experiences with Passover
wine and provides an opportunity for students to discuss their own holiday
traditions.
HOI POLLOI —the common people, as opposed to the upper classes.
PROHIBITION —the period from 1920 to 1933, when alcoholic drinks were
illegal in the United States.
In addition to PASSOVER and SEDER , which are defined in the Orientation
exercise, the following words related to Jewish culture appear in the text:
EXODUS —the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, under the leadership
of Moses as recounted in the second book of the Bible. (This word appears
in the Orientation exercise.)
KOSHER —(of food) suitable to be eaten or drunk in accordance with the
traditional dietary laws of Judaism.
KIDDUSH —a blessing said over a cup of wine or a piece of bread.
L’ CHAIM —a common Jewish toast or saying; it translates as “to life.”
Note: a good deal of the language in this broadcast is contained within
what could broadly be considered a Jewish style of communication. In addi-
tion to the specific religious vocabulary noted above and in the chapter, this
includes the imperfect grammar of those customers who appear to be East-
ern European émigrés (e.g., “since I remember”) to the way that Linda
Schapiro “discreetly nudges” David Isay to sample some wine and asks if he
is married. An opportunity to discuss this style in the context of cross-cultural
communication is raised by the Listening for Analysis exercise.
Notes on Exercises
ori entation
In addition to “Passover” and “Seder,” you should be prepared to define the
words “exodus” and “kosher,” both of which are relevant to Jewish tradi-
tions—a major theme of this story. Also, “commemorate” may be a new lexi-
cal item; it is a fairly low-frequency word, but it is important to the theme of
this chapter.
The way that this exercise is handled will depend on students’ familiarity
with Jewish traditions. A multilingual class from different cultures may need a
basic introduction to the holiday. A monolingual class of students from the
same culture can first look at differences in how each group member defined
the holiday, and then talk about the specifics of how their family celebrates a
holiday all are familiar with. American teachers can provide a model by
telling about how his or her own family celebrates Thanksgiving—a classic
American holiday that many ESOL students do not know well—or another
holiday.
vo c a b u l a ry
This activity introduces the lexical field of wine and winemaking, which is
key understanding Schapiro’s business and some of the processes described
in the broadcast.
Other words with the root vinum include “winery” and “vintage.”
56 Passover Wine
This is the first story since Chapter 1 in which David Isay is an active partici-
pant. Encourage students to use their knowledge of David Isay as a person to
make their predictions.

Items 4 and 5 presage the Listening for Analysis activity. At this stage, stu-
dents should stick to literal answers, saving opinion and details for the later
activity.
Item 7 offers a chance to retell a story; it could be given to a relatively
advanced student.
Language Focus A: Using “Would” and “Used To”

This is a fairly subtle point, but it relates to errors often made in narrative
writing about the past. You may want to remind students of the difference
between the forms “used to” and “to be/get used to,” meaning to become
accustomed to.
In Exercise A, note the three verbs that can be used, in this sense, only
with “used to”: “be,” “live,” and “speak” (in the sense of having the ability to
speak a language). Point out to students that each of these refers to an ongo-
ing situation rather than a discrete event.
Exercise B should be kept brief, but remind students to focus on habitual
actions and to use the forms presented. Give students perhaps fifteen minutes
to write, and then have them exchange papers (with a partner or a small
group) and proofread each other’s work for accurate use of verb forms.
Note that Exercise B is similar to Writing Activity A/B. You might want to
conflate the two (or simply remind students to keep the ideas from this Lan-
guage Focus in mind when they do the writing activity).

Be prepared for a wide range of responses, particularly to Linda Schapiro’s
personality. Some people like the highly personalized style; others will find
her somewhat pushy and overbearing. This can be an opportunity to talk
about different styles of interaction in different cultures, and the possible con-
flicts and misunderstandings that happen in cross-cultural situations.
Language Focus B: Using the Passive Voice to Describe a Process

This is a relatively slight Language Focus. It can be done quickly, and it com-
plements Language Focus B in Chapter 6. See notes there on having students
write “grammar paragraphs.”
Passover Wine 57
The skill being worked on here is storytelling. Taking notes in advance gives
students a chance to tell a more organized yet still spontaneous story. Con-
sider modeling by telling students a story from your own family.
This activity can be done in small groups or as a whole class activity. The
latter will take longer but can be a good opportunity to build a sense of com-
munity among the class members as they get to know something quite per-
sonal about each other.
No choice of activities is offered, though students do have some control in
terms of how intimate a family story they choose to tell. And if a student has
a good story to tell, the rule about it relating to something that happened
during a family gathering can be relaxed—any family story can be told.
Writing Activities
Topic A is quite personal and can be meaningful for those students who
choose it. Topic B calls for an argumentative essay. Students may need to
have the concept on which the question is based explained to them a bit
more. You could talk about chain stores that exist in areas where you class is
located—Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, etc.—and talk about how these stores
change the experience of shopping and the atmosphere of neighborhoods
into which they move.
Project Activity: Researching an Ethnic Holiday

Encourage students to go into as much detail as possible, finding out specifics
about food, ceremonies, etc. Classes being held outside of the United States
might want to look for information about how one of the home culture’s hol-
idays is (or is not) celebrated in the United States (The Internet can be a good
source of information for this.)
If research seems too daunting, in a multicultural class in the U.S. students
can instead be asked to present a holiday from their own country. In such
presentations, students should be encouraged to bring in photos, costumes, or
other visual aids, or music or even food associated with the holiday. In pre-
senting, they should explain both how the holiday is celebrated and what it
means to them personally.
58 Passover Wine
Chapter 9 The Joe Franklin Show
Joe Franklin is the effusive host of the longest-running, though not the most-
watched, talk show on television. His program is a standard of late-night
cable TV and features guests who could hardly be considered genuine
celebrities. David Isay visits with Joe both in his cluttered office and on the
set, where Joe has interviewed, among others, dancing dentists, singing
lawyers, and people who play the piano while standing on their head.
Throughout, we are treated to the hyperbolic introductions and loquacious-
ness that are at the heart of the Joe Franklin style.
LYSOL —a cleaning product with an antiseptic smell.
MULTIPLEX SEX EMPORIUM —Joe’s office is apparently located over a
club that features nude dancers.
VAUDEVILLE —an old-fashioned form of variety entertainment show, pre-
sented in a theater; it was most popular before the advent of radio and TV.
SELTZER BOTTLES , PRATFALLS —features of vaudeville entertainment (a
seltzer bottle contains carbonated water, which one comedian would spray at
another; a pratfall is an intentional fall done on stage).
ori entation
This discussion often builds quite a head of steam. Try to keep each student’s
explanation to one or two minutes. Students may talk either about an
English-language program or about one produced in their first language.
The words from the vocabulary exercise may be useful in doing this orien-
tation, so consider reversing the order of the two exercises or referring stu-
dents to both of them at the same time.
vo c a b u l a ry
Responses will vary depending on the students’ degree of familiarity with
U.S. culture. You can aid students by describing a given show according to
the directions given in the Orientation and asking them to guess the category
it belongs in. For this chapter it is crucial that students understand the con-
cept of a talk show. Students may also be interested in hearing about such
“junk TV” shows as “Ricki Lake” and “The Jerry Springer Show.” “Sitcom”
is a portmanteau word blending the words “situation” and “comedy.”
The main impression given by Joe’s office is one of a very disorderly person
and perhaps also someone of great activity and energy. After hearing the
broadcast, students can compare the photo to the colorful description of Joe’s
office given in the first paragraph of the broadcast (reprinted below). It might
help to replay, or read aloud, just this paragraph.
On the sixth floor of an old Times Square building, Joe

Franklin’s cramped office looks tornado-stricken. It’s per-
meated with the musty, Lysol-tinged smells rising from
the multiplex sex emporium that occupies the floors
below. There are stacks of old coffee cups, moldy half-
eaten bagels, and shopping bags full of yellow newspaper
clippings everywhere.
60 The Joe Franklin Show

Item 2 is a bit difficult and may require careful explanation, or a replaying of
that section of the tape.
Item 6 might require that you explain the concept of promoting a product
(and how pervasive this practice is in U.S. media).
Language Focus A: Groups of Synonyms

This is a fun exercise that helps students get a handle on Joe’s distinctive
speaking style.
You may want to talk about potential differences in meaning among some
of the words in the synonym groups and about the physical images under-
lying such expressions as “mushrooming and skyrocketing and snowballing
and escalating.”
Part B asks students to assess the impact of this aspect of Joe’s style on the
listener. A range of opinions is, of course, possible. One typical interpretation
is that this is part of Joe’s over-the-top personality; it draws the viewer’s atten-
tion but also makes us discount a bit whatever Joe says. We realize that he is
probably exaggerating. This discussion will help lay the groundwork for Lan-
guage Focus B.

With a more sophisticated class, you may want to discuss the distinct possibil-
ity that Joe’s entire performance is tongue in cheek and that he does not
mean for the listener to take his words literally.
Language Focus B: The Language of Hype

You may want to introduce the word “hyperbole” and talk about its relation-
ship to hype. Parts A and B work together with the Listening for Analysis
exercise and can be combined into a general discussion of Joe’s style and its
effect on the audience.
Part C can be extensive and may be used in place of the Discussion Activ-
ity. The work that students produce in this exercise can be built on in the
roleplay activity.
Activity A is personal, asking students to reflect on the impact of TV their
own lives.
Activity B calls on students to make broad cultural generalizations. In a
multicultural class, each student can be the expert on their home country.
The Joe Franklin Show 61

Students from the same home country may well give different answers. Such
disagreement, if expressed appropriately, can be quite productive.
Writing Activities
Topic A asks students to speculate broadly. You may want to focus on their
use of modal verbs and conditional forms. Topic B is broader and calls for an
argumentative essay.
Project Activity: Producing a TV Talk Show

If students are enthusiastic, this exercise can be fun and productive. It can be
expanded in scope depending on the time and resources available. Groups
should have three to five people: host, sidekick (optional), and two to three
guests. Basic props required are a desk and a chair for the host and chairs for
the guests.
Encourage students playing guests to develop a clear sense of the character
they are portraying (what the personality is like, what they are coming on the
show to promote, whether they like the host, etc.) and then allow them to
improvise freely. The characters they play can be based on their own interests
or be completely imagined.
Videotaping can add to students’ enjoyment, and this also gives an addi-
tional opportunity for feedback and correction.
62 The Joe Franklin Show

Chapter 10 Kipperman’s Pawnshop
and Wedding Chapel
Ted Kipperman is the colorful and outspoken owner of a pawnshop in

Houston, Texas. When a surplus of wedding bands built up in his pawnshop,
Kipperman decided to expand his business to include a wedding chapel.
Everything about Kipperman and his business is in poor taste, from his sales
pitch to the artificial flowers and plastic wedding cake that he uses in his bar-
gain wedding ceremonies.
This story is one of the more challenging in the book in terms of length
and language content. Additionally, Ted Kipperman himself is a relatively
unsympathetic character. This chapter can be fun and valuable, however, for
a class that understands the idea of kitschiness and is open to making a fairly
sophisticated critique of the crassness of some aspects of U.S. culture.
PAWNSHOP —A business where people can bring valuable items and leave
them in exchange for short-term loans of money. If they can repay the loan
in time, their item is returned to them; if not, the shop keeps it and sells it.
Pawnshops are usually located in low-income neighborhoods.
TO HOCK —a slang term meaning to pawn something.
.25 OR .38 CALIBER PISTOL —two sizes of gun (as measured by the inside
diameter of the gun’s barrel in millimeters).
BARGAIN BASEMENT —the most inexpensive (comes from the practice of
department stores keeping sale items on the basement floor).
TIE THE KNOT —a slang expression meaning to get married.
THERE ’ S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SKIN A CAT —this idiom means that
the same thing can be done in different ways. (Ted Kipperman uses it to
comment on the unusual circumstances of Rose Martinez’s wedding.)
ori entation
This activity ensures that students have a basic understanding of how wed-
dings are typically conducted in the United States before listening to the
broadcast. This is important because the weddings depicted in the broadcast
are quite atypical but are based on the standard formula.
Students often have a lot to say about weddings. For reasons of time man-
agement, you might want to limit each pair or group to four entries in each
category, and then collect them on the board to note differences.
If students don’t know a given word, encourage them to use the form, “the
person who . . . [performs the ceremony], [gives the ring to the groom], etc.”
Elements of a traditional wedding include the proposal; the engagement
party; a wedding shower (for the bride); a bachelor party (for the bride-
groom); the rehearsal dinner; the marriage ceremony itself. The elements
of the ceremony are as follows: the groom enters; the bride enters with her
father; the official performs the ceremony; the rings are exchanged; the first
kiss; the couple exit (rice is thrown).
There are many variations on this, of course. Particularly, as this formula
has fixed, traditional gender roles (e.g., the difference in nature between the
wedding shower and the bachelor party), many younger couples seek to
change the formula to make it better reflect their own values. An opportu-
nity to discuss weddings and their variations in more depth will be given in
the After Listening activities.
64 Kipperman’s Pawnshop and Wedding Chapel

vo c a b u l a ry
It is important that students understand the concept of a pawnshop and how
it works before listening for the first time. Part B introduces a major theme of
the broadcast: the way that Kipperman’s Pawnshop mixes elements of the
“sacred” and the “profane.”
Again, students must understand the concepts of a pawnshop and a wedding
chapel independently so that they have a basis on which to predict and so
that they will understand the mixing of the two businesses when listening to
the broadcast.
Encourage students to look at the photo of Ted Kipperman in front of his
business to get a feel for what a wedding at his chapel might be like.

Item 5 is something of a trick question—it asks which options the couple
gets, but they actually turn them all down.
Item 6 can be hard to answer because Ted Kipperman’s speech is some-
what unclear at this point. You may want to replay this part of the tape as
many times as needed for students to understand what he says.
Item 8: Students may initially have difficulty with the phrase “wedding
by proxy,” but the next part of the broadcast shows what is meant by this
phrase. This is a good opportunity to point out the importance of using
context clues.
Language Focus A: Multi-Word Verbs (2)

This exercise is built on some of the ideas introduced in Chapter 1. It could
be argued that not all of the words taught in this exercise are, strictly speak-
ing, phrasal verbs (e.g., the more literal uses of “come out,” “come in,” and
“pick up”), but these have been included under the idea that students should
be exposed to the range of types of meanings, from the more literal to the
less literal, that phrasal verbs (or multi-word verbs, or verb-plus-particle com-
binations) can have. Similarly, noun forms are used in a couple of cases
where they seem more natural than the verb itself (e.g., “standout”).
Note the difference in stress for “pass on” when in means to give to a
future generation (primary stress on the word “on”) and when it means
“decline to buy” (primary stress on “pass”).
Kipperman’s Pawnshop and Wedding Chapel 65

Not only is there no arguing about taste, but it may well be impossible to
explain as well. In most cases, your students will either get the sense in which
Kipperman’s Pawnshop is in very poor taste without your explaining it, or
they will not get it at all. If not, concentrate more on the responses to items 2
and 3 and work with whatever the students have to say.
Language Focus B: Formulaic Language

Part A focuses on a type of language that students often find most difficult to
understand, the kind of fixed formulas that occur in traditional ceremonies.
Alerting students to the ways that this language can differ from everyday
usage is an important first step.
Part B looks at one of the most pervasive contemporary uses of formulaic
language: sales pitches. Point out that David Isay is being ironic (and perhaps
mocking Ted Kipperman), while Ted Kipperman is committing a more
straightforward breach of good taste by trying to sell things throughout the
wedding ceremony.
Here students can have a chance to return to the topic raised in the Orien-
tation.
In responding to Topic A, encourage students to be creative and even fan-
ciful; their responses do not have to be realistic.
Topic B works best in a class where there is a good mix of first languages
and first cultures. If you have groups of students from different places,
encourage them to work together to explain their own cultural traditions
relating to weddings.
Writing Activities
Topic A is fairly accessible and straightforward. If many different countries
or backgrounds are represented in your class, it may be interesting to read
some of the essays aloud. (Also, this activity can be adapted as an alternative
discussion assignment.) If you have groups of students from a single country,
they can work together to complete this assignment, either in spoken or in
written form.
Topic B is quite challenging. As the proverb implies, discussing taste and
identifying what is good or bad taste is a difficult task. Still, this could be a
good topic for ambitious students.
66 Kipperman’s Pawnshop and Wedding Chapel

Project Activity: Planning a “Combination Business”
This is another topic that works best with a lively, imaginative group that can
take the ball and run with it. Some groups may want to try to do something
that is in taste as poor as Kipperman’s. Others may want to do something
more literal, something that sounds like it would actually be a good idea for
a business. Don’t try to force the “bad taste” idea on students who don’t seem
to respond to it.
Also, see the directions and comments for the Project Activities in Chap-
ters 1 and 5, which are similar.
Kipperman’s Pawnshop and Wedding Chapel 67

Chapter 11 Woolworth’s Lunch
Counter
This luncheonette, located in a Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North

Carolina, became famous in 1960 when it was the site of a sit-in to protest
segregation, an event that helped to spark the Civil Rights Movement. David
interviews Geneva Tisdale, a black woman who has worked at the store for
forty-two years and who was among the first African-Americans to eat at the
lunch counter. In talking to her he finds out how some things have not
improved for Geneva in her decades of work at the store.
This story raises some difficult and important questions about the role of
race in American society, the legacy of segregation, and the effects of the
Civil Rights Movement. Students are often eager to talk about racial issues
but feel that they do not have the background or vocabulary to do so. It may
help to point out that native speakers on all sides of the color line have strong
feelings about this issue and that we tend to have difficulty talking about it too.
Some teachers might feel that such controversial—and potentially explo-
sive—topics are not appropriate for the ESOL classroom. We disagree. It is
our experience that students are often eager to learn about and discuss the
African-American experience and racial issues in general. The ESOL class-
room can be an ideal place to help them gain some experience discussing
controversial issues in a safe, supportive environment. And if your students
learn to discuss race productively, there are few issues in American society
that they won’t be able to handle.
This broadcast gives students a chance to understand one person’s experi-
ence with both segregation and the Civil Rights Movement. One way of
looking at the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement is that the United States
has been fairly successful in giving political rights to blacks but that economic
and social equality have not progressed nearly as far.
Students may be interested to hear that the chairs that the four initial
demonstrators occupied are now on display in the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington, D.C.
WOOLWORTH ’ S —a chain of “five and dime” discount stores found across
the United States for most of the twentieth century. Most Woolworth’s stores
featured a lunch counter serving inexpensive meals.
LUNCHEONETTE —a synonym for lunch counter; a small restaurant
serving inexpensive meals.
ori entation
Students will likely have a wide range of levels of awareness of this piece of
U.S. history. The purpose of this exercise is to find out what they know and
to get them to ask some relevant questions. While you may want to provide
some basic background on the Civil Rights Movement, avoid overloading the
students with information. The Research Activity at the end of the chapter
provides an opportunity to explore this period in much greater depth.
Students may not feel that they have any basis for responding to item 2.
Encourage them to make a guess. (Alternatively, you can ask them to write a
question or two about what they would like to learn.)
vo c a b u l a ry
This exercise gives a basic introduction to the Civil Rights Movement as it
introduces some of the vocabulary necessary to understanding the broadcast.
70 Woolworth’s Lunch Counter

It is important that students understand the concept of racial segregation,
and some of the basic principles and techniques of nonviolent social protest.
Item G, the lexical item “African-American,” raises the issue of group ter-
minology for Americans of African descent. One way to handle this is to
introduce the terms “colored,” “Negro,” “black,” and “African-American”
and to explain that the first two terms were generally considered polite before
the Civil Rights Movement but now are somewhat archaic. (They are not,
however, inherently offensive. These terms are used throughout the speeches
and writing of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall.) The terms
“black” and “African-American” are generally the most commonly used and
widely accepted in the United States today, with the former being used in less
formal and the latter in more formal situations.
This exercise raises the question of whether the word “nigger,” almost
unanimously considered the most violent and offensive word in the English
language, should also be presented. One way to present it is to note that it is
very different in meaning, if similar in sound, from Negro; to compare it to
racist epithets for other groups; and to strongly emphasize that it should be in
students’ receptive but not productive vocabulary. In classes where there is a
comfortable bond between students and teacher, students may be interested
in hearing about other racial epithets, including those directed at their own
ethnic group.
As always when students write their own predicting questions, it is possible
that some reasonable questions will not be answered by the broadcast. After
listening, see which ones were and were not. If a question was not answered,
perhaps you or the students can infer a likely answer.
This activity can lead to some general discussion on what the social and
political situation was in the American South during this period.

Even after understanding the literal events, students might be confused about
why the manager asked Geneva and her co-workers to be the first ones to eat
at the lunch counter. It appears that once the decision to desegregate had
been made, the manager decided to have Woolworths’ own employees break
the ban because they could be counted on to eat quickly and attract minimal
publicity.
Woolworth’s Lunch Counter 71

Item 7: $5.50 per hour is a very low wage, close to the minimum wage
mandated by the U.S. government. A question not answered by this broad-
cast is whether Geneva was able to supplement her income with tips, as a
restaurant waiter would be able to. The broadcast implies that $5.50 per
hour is essentially all the money she earns.
Language Focus A: Time Prepositions

This activity complements the Language Focus A in Chapter 4.
Each sentence is adapted only slightly from the broadcast. One advantage
of this is that it gives students a slightly more complex view of what a “time
idea” is. For example, the kind of “point in the past” that calls for “since”
isn’t always something as discrete and clear as “11:00 a.m.” or “Tuesday”; it
can be something like, “the days when African-Americans were not allowed
to serve food.” (In the broadcast, this phrase is actually more complex.)
It is useful to consider what kind of physical image is the primary meaning
of each preposition, and how that image is built on to express this time idea.
For example, “at” often refers to a specific physical point, or to a similarly
specific temporal point; “in” expresses the idea of location within some two-
or three-dimensional shape, and a longer time period like a week or a month
can be compared to such a shape. The use of “on” to refer to a day is some-
what different but can be compared to placing something “on” the square
designating a day on a calendar.
Based on these spatial and temporal uses, more figurative and abstract
meanings of prepositions are built. The connection may not always be per-
fectly clear, but an understanding of basic physical and temporal ideas can
be of great help to students in learning these more abstract uses.

Answers to item 2 can be particularly sensitive. Students may have a range
of responses, including some that appear quite insensitive to Geneva and
her plight. Avoid contradicting any responses made by students—they cer-
tainly have a right to their opinion—but to try to make clear, as much as pos-
sible, the severe limitations on the opportunities available to blacks in that
time and place. (For example, when Geneva was young, no one in her family
was allowed to vote, schools were segregated, and she probably had limited
access to the type of education that would have prepared her for a higher-
paying job.)
This activity is focused on Geneva Tisdale but it can lead directly into a
more general discussion of the status of blacks and other racial minorities in
the United States as laid out in the Discussion Activity.

Language Focus B: Nonstandard Language
The question of exactly what Black English (or Ebonics) is and who speaks
it is controversial in the United States today. One way to approach it is to
point out that, largely because of segregation, the experiences of African-
Americans in the United States have been different from the experiences of
other groups, and this has inevitably led to language differences. That said,
it is important to make clear that Black English is not a genetic phenomenon
but a social one; it is generally spoken by those who live in predominately
black neighborhoods.
This exercise attempts to illustrate that Black English differs from standard
English but is no less logical or rule governed. In linguistic terms it is the
equal of Standard English, though the same thing is not true in sociological
terms (e.g., speaking only Black English greatly reduces one’s employment
opportunities).
The goal of this exercise is to give students some understanding and
appreciation of Black English. Certainly, it is not expected that they will pro-
duce any of these forms in their own language use. Depending on the inter-
ests of the class, Part B can lead to thought-provoking discussions about the
relationship between segregation, other forms of racism, and language use.
Discussion Activity
No choice of activities is offered here because we consider it important for
all students to have a chance to discuss the serious and complex social issues
relating to race and inequality that come up in this chapter.
Having said that, it is not necessary to answer each of the questions given.
Rather, you should guide the discussion in whatever direction you feel is most
appropriate for the class, moving from an analysis of Geneva Tisdale’s indi-
vidual experience to broader questions of race and discrimination in the
United States (or perhaps in the students’ home countries).
Writing Activities
Topic A is something like a “free writing” topic. A number of potentially
volatile ideas have come up in the chapter, and this activity is intended to give
students the opportunity to express whatever feelings they have. In this kind
of activity the form is much less important than the content. It’s important to
give students’ the freedom to write in any direction that they want, thus the
choice of the word “associations” in the directions.
Woolworth’s Lunch Counter 73

Topic B is less personal and somewhat more directed, but it remains
potentially emotional. Students could be reminded of the form of a business
letter (mentioned in Chapter 2), but in this exercise the content is, of course,
more important. If students would benefit from more direction, suggest that
they organize the letter the following way (with each of the points below con-
stituting roughly a paragraph):
• Introduce yourself.
• Present the length of your work experience at Woolworth’s.
• Describe what you have seen during that time.
• Describe how your job has changed over the years (or not).
• Ask for some form of compensation or another job.
• Politely close the letter.
Project Activity: Researching the Civil Rights Movement

Consider putting students into teams to two to four and asking each to
research a specific topic (e.g., the Montgomery bus boycott, the March on
Washington, Dr. King’s assassination, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, etc.). Have
each team prepare a five- to ten- minute presentation to be made in a future
class session. As these are presented to the class, the students themselves will
generate a good overview of the Civil Rights Movement and answer any
questions that came up in the Orientation activity.
Another way to pursue the themes of this broadcast would be to do a les-
son on the Civil Rights Movement—e.g., by watching a section of the docu-
mentary “Eyes on the Prize” on video or by reading (or listening to) some of
the essays or speeches of Dr. King. (Among his best-known and most acces-
sible works are the essays “Three Ways of Responding to Racism” and
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” and the famous “I Have a Dream” speech.)

Chapter 12 Cynical Santa
Eddie Sirwinski is an itinerant welder and recovering alcoholic who works for
a charity during the Christmas season. He dresses up as Santa Claus and
rings a bell on the sidewalk to encourage passersby to donate money.
Although Santa Sirwinski has a very non-jolly approach to his work (his nick-
name is Cynical Santa, and he says such things such as, “Aw, to hell with the
ho, ho, hos”) he receives more donations than any other charity Santa in his
area. The Cynical Santa lets David Isay follow him around for a day’s work
in front of Rockefeller Center as his cynical humor and irreverent attitude
toward the holidays strike a chord with New Yorkers.
Despite his nickname, there is a warm and sincere spirit under Eddie Sir-
winski’s gruff exterior that leads most students to find him somewhat sympa-
thetic, as well as very, very funny. In addition to giving an unusual take on the
Christmas holidays, this broadcast also raises some interesting points about
the norms of behavior and polite and impolite language.
TO BE DOWN ON ONE ’ S LUCK —to be going through a difficult period
in one’s life.
HARD KNOCKS —difficult life experiences (often used in the phrase,
“the school of hard knocks”).
BLOOMINGDALE ’ S —a large department store in New York City.
THE BOWERY —a street famous for its cheap “flophouse” hotels where
many unemployed men live.
ori entation
This activity is intended to make certain that students understand the two
kinds of Santa Claus: the legendary figure (i.e., the “real” Santa) and the
kind who stand on a street corner soliciting donations for charity. The key
to making this distinction is revealed in the last line of the directions. The
true sentences—1, 3, 6, 7, and 9—provide a basic summary of what the
legendary Santa Claus is known for. The remaining (even-numbered) sen-
tences provide a basic introduction to the work of a charity Santa, the
world in which this broadcast takes place.
vo c a b u l a ry
Students might need help with items 2 and 7, which are idiomatic expres-
sions. Item 8, “serenade,” often has a romantic connotation, but in this
broadcast it is used simply to mean “sing for others.”
Encourage students to use all the information at their disposal, particularly
the line of dialogue at the beginning of the chapter.

All items here are fairly straightforward. Check that students understand the
concept of a charity Santa and that they understand the financial basis of
Sirwinski’s job (i.e., he is paid a flat fee of $35 per day but receives a commis-
sion of 15 percent on all donations above $100 each day). Sirwinski’s inter-
actions with others will be looked at more carefully in Listening for Analysis.
76 Cynical Santa
Language Focus A: Negative Expressions
This phenomenon is also found in common idioms, as when we say that
someone “is no spring chicken” (i.e., is relatively old) or “wouldn’t hurt a fly”
(i.e., is harmless).
You may also want to discuss the effect of saying something indirectly; in
most cases, this technique gives some kind of ironic distance and/or humor-
ous effect. Dave Isay often uses negative expressions to create a kind of droll
understatement (e.g., “Not your typical Kris Kringle . . . ” and “It’s not hard
to pick out Cynical Santa from all of the others”), while Eddie Sirwinski’s use
of negative expressions seems to be part of his gruff personality (e.g., “I’m
not here to entertain people”).

This exercise addresses Cynical Santa’s speaking style, which is what makes
him so entertaining and successful at his job. The question remains as to how
literally Eddie Sirwinski’s cynicism should be taken, and to what extent might
it be a show that is put on for the benefit of his “audience.” As always, students
are entitled to any opinion they prefer, and their ability to explain their opin-
ion and relate it to the text is more important than the position that they take.
Be certain that students can understand the interchanges between Sirwin-
ski and the people on the street. You may want to replay a few of these inter-
actions to help students with these very informal and authentic exchanges,
which can be more difficult to understand than the rest of the broadcast.
Language Focus B: Polite and Impolite Language

The point of this activity is not, of course, to encourage students to use
“bad” language but to point out some of the differences between polite and
impolite language—certainly an important thing for students to be able to
recognize. The activity focuses on understanding impolite language and look-
ing for polite ways to express the same sentiment.
This exercise can lead into a broader discussion of the idea of euphemism
and the myriad ways we have for referring to things that we are uncomfort-
able discussing (e.g., sex, death, using the bathroom). The questions in Exer-
cise B can also be used as a starting point for Discussion Activity B.
Topic A asks students to speculate about Cynical Santa’s life and the possible
reasons for his brusque personality. There’s not a great deal of information to
Cynical Santa 77
go on in the text, but this might open up a more general discussion of the
problems of homelessness (and its relationship to alcoholism) and so forth.
Topic B asks students to make a generalization about norms of cultural
behavior. The underlying idea is that different cultures have different norms
for what is considered polite, and that misunderstanding of these norms can
often lead to conflict. For example, in relation to American norms, standards
in Asian cultures often seem unduly indirect while standards in some Euro-
pean cultures can seem too direct.
This topic needs to be handled with care to avoid stereotyping, but we feel
that it is one worth discussing. If you would prefer to present this topic in a
way that is less likely to lead students to make generalizations, you may
replace the topic provided in the student book with the following topic: What
are the relative values of being polite and being rude? Is it ever possible to be
too polite? Tell a story from your own experience about a time when either
you or a person you know was either too polite or too direct, or even rude.
Writing Activities
Topic A is personal, asking students to reflect on their feelings about holidays
and how they are observed.
Topic B is more philosophical and calls for students to evaluate the level of
cynicism in Eddie Sirwinski. They might want to use their response to Listen-
ing for Analysis as a starting place for doing so.
Project Activity: Making Your Own Documentary

This activity serves more as a culmination to the book than to this chapter
alone. It is quite large in scope and could require much time and many
resources, but it can be very rewarding. How it is put into action—i.e., whether
students use video, audiotape, or just notes—will depend of course on the
resources available and the amount of class time committed to the project.
Even if you do not wish to put this activity into practice, students might
enjoy looking at the guidelines for making a radio documentary, which give a
behind-the-scenes look into David Isay’s work. For more info on this—or any
other aspects of David’s work —visit the website of Sound Portraits Produc-
tions, David’s production company, at www.soundportraits.org.
Another possible project would be to ask the students write an evaluation
of the documentaries in this book—what did they like and dislike about
them, etc. Students can write their opinions in the form of a letter to David
Isay giving feedback on his documentaries. These letters could be e-mailed to
David via the Sound Portraits website or sent through the regular mail to the
address given on the website.
78 Cynical Santa

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Structure of the Chapters

• play the broadcast again in its entirety;

Introduction to the Broadcast

Notes on the Exercises

Listening for Comprehension

Language Focus A: Phrasal Verbs

Listening for Analysis

Language Focus B: Vocabulary in Context (1)

Project Activity: Planning Your Own Restaurant

Introduction to the Broadcast

Notes on the Exercises

The Nixie Clerk 23

Listening for Comprehension

Language Focus A: Nonsexist Language

24 The Nixie Clerk

Language Focus B: Describing a Process with Vivid Simple Present Verbs

The Nixie Clerk 25

Project Activity: Researching Your Ideal Job

26 The Nixie Clerk

Introduction to the Broadcast

Notes on the Exercises

Listening and Understanding

Listening for Comprehension

Language Focus A: Parts of the Body Used as Verbs

Listening for Analysis

Language Focus B: Sequence Words

Project Activity: Researching an Unusual Business

Introduction to the Broadcast

Notes on the Exercises

Listening and Understanding

Listening for Comprehension

Language Focus A: Preposition Combinations

Listening for Analysis

Project Activity: Debating How to Fight Illegal Drugs

Introduction to the Broadcast

Listening and Understanding

Listening for Comprehension

Language Focus A: Using Descriptive Adverbs

Listening for Analysis

Language Focus B: Using “Will” and “Going To”

Project Activity: Planning for an Aging Population

Introduction to the Broadcast

Notes on the Exercises

First Listening: Predicting

Listening for Comprehension

Listening for Analysis

Language Focus A: Past Tense Verbs in Context

Project Activity: Presenting a Newspaper Article

Introduction to the Broadcast

Notes on the Exercises

Listening and Understanding

Listening for Comprehension

Language Focus A: Units of Measure

Listening for Analysis

Language Focus B: Vocabulary in Context (2)

Project Activity: Survey on Writing

Introduction to the Broadcast

Listening for Comprehension

Language Focus A: Using “Would” and “Used To”